Let's start from the beginning, how did you guys end up playing together?
We started playing together and formed about June 2014 just a month prior to the ESL Cologne OCE qualifier in July, where we placed second nationally. I’ve known Emagine since CSS days and he was just transitioning to CSGO and I knew Rickeh from my days in 1.6 and also versing him in my old team, both Rickeh and James were teammates in Trident and USTILO has been a standout individual since his first National LAN debut in 2014.
How does a regular day look like for you guys? How much time do you spend practicing and how does it affect your social lives?
A regular day would see me going to work, until 5pm WA time, then jump straight on and start practising, it’s 8pm eastern and we would practise until around 11pm Eastern ideally but sometimes cut short due to lack of teams. We all prioritise CS over our social lives mostly, including girlfriends (who are awesomely supportive considering), forfeiting our Sundays usually and declining invites to the odd weekday dinner invitations, but we do it for the love of competing and for each other.
How do your family and friends feel about your gaming career?
Personally my family is always excited about the opportunities my gaming career represents as well as very supportive of the ‘hardcore’ practise regime before a large qualifier or tournament, they understand that during that time they’re not going to hear from me much. My friends think it’s awesome that I get to tour the country and occasionally the world, a while back no one knew what I was really competing in but now days it’s totally acceptable, mostly people just see the good side which is the travel and the winning, but they rarely see the blood, sweat and tears that can sometimes go into just losing.
How hard is it for Australian players to climb their way up and become recognized at the scene?
It’s insanely difficult, I liken it to a new player trying to uptake quake and knowing they’ll never reach the level of someone like Cooller or Cypher, it’s not going to happen even after a year maybe, but there will be the odd person who just gets it. There are so many variables, personality, ability, determination/motivation and everything has to be aligned for a long period of time to get the results on the board just to get recognised, then after everything, you need opportunity and they’re themselves are a dime a dozen.
Looking back at 2014 and comparing it to today, how has the CS:GO scene grown in Australia in particular?
It’s almost back where it started in 2014, happily today we can now say there have been 3 different LAN Nationals winners since I won the original CGPL with Vox, which is a great sign of the things to come, with a potential 4th candidate hot on our heels. The whole scene has benefited a great deal from the new opportunities flowing in to OCE CSGO scene such as FACEIT, ESEA, ESL invites, maybe even an ESWC qualifier or DreamHack Invite. This puts hope in the eyes of our young and talented and quenches a thirst the scene has had since its inception.
VOX received a lot of support from the community during Katowice. How much would it help if you guys received the same amount of support prior to the FACEIT LAN finals?
It would help a lot if we could get any support anyone around the world. There is no need for negativity in our scene, we’re all united with the passion for this game over all the other point and click games the masses have turned to. We’re the one of the best in our region, whether we’re able to compete at a top level is irrelevant, we deserve to be there, we qualified undefeated and we will be trying our absolute hardest to put up a win. We obviously don’t want to get any ones hopes up but knowing that no matter how we do people will still support our cause at home to become the best eventually would be a great relief.
In VOX’s AMA on reddit, they stated that the ‘Australian scene is too isolated from major tournaments’. Do you see any possible solution for this?
I don’t entirely agree, but in terms of comparing an OCE teams performance to European standard, it’s very simple, we’re new to the pro scene, the more regular exposure we get the better we’ll be.
Just an amazing opportunity the FACEIT Team have given us, the BO1 format worked for us.
Recently we saw your team in action in the FACEIT League where you performed really well, finishing first in the Oceanic division. What do you think of this event?
Just an amazing opportunity the FACEIT Team have given us, the BO1 format online is debatable but it worked for us and we took every game like life or death from the beginning doing everything we had to just to secure the wins.
What are your expectations for the first international LAN for your team in London?
We’re coming off the back of a very bad time for the team, we’re in a restructure mode but refuse to give up. We’re going to hold our head high, start preparing immediately and do everything in our power to get up to an acceptable standard before leaving Australia.
Will you have any special preparations for it, bootcamp, etc.?
These details aren’t clear at the moment, our Org is managing that and ideally we do want to bootcamp somewhere. @OfficialSnypeR tweet me or direct message me if you want to set something up.
What is your opinion on the game’s development so far? Does Valve have a good approach in terms of interacting with pro players and community?
The games developing constantly, which I don’t really like. Valve’s approach of interacting with pro’s at these events is of course the best way but sometimes it’s the implementation that needs more proofing rather than a pro suggesting a minor change and Valve running too far with it.
We recently saw a nerf of the tec9 but also a buff of SMGs. What is your opinion on those weapons?
The nerf was hardly effective, it’s still worth the $500 dollars but then again every pistol is worth its weight in gold.
In the latest update Valve decided to open up the long A skyboxes on dust2, which allows for a much wider use of nades all over the map now. Do you think this will affect any of the already established strategies on this map?
Yeah of course, if you aren’t looking for better ways to use the map to your advantage someone else will. Just like source but it opens up the game and as a Terrorist they need any strategic avenue they can get as the game feels a bit limited in what you can execute with the current heavily restricted skyboxes, given that smokes/flashes don’t slide like 1.6.
Do you have any events coming up where you will be playing at?
At this point I can only officially confirm we will be at FACEIT but we are looking at events on a nearby timeline in order to maximise our experience return for the long flight and expenses.
What are your team’s goals right now?
Right now our goal is to prepare for FACEIT and get USTILO up to speed. Looking at the team list it’s a daunting prospect given our short preparation time but we’re excited and motivated nonetheless.
There have been a lot discussion regarding the best-of-one group stage at major tournaments. Do you feel that a best-of-three group stage would be a better solution, or do you feel that it would be too much for teams to play that many games during a short period of time?
Both systems have pros and cons, the BO1 system can allow for greater upsets but at the same time the winning team can sail on through in 2 maps without showing their tactics.
On the other hand the Bo3 system benefits us in terms of gaining experience, exposure and opportunity but at the same time reduces chances of an upset – but for the good of the competition that’s what most players and spectators should want. The right teams making it to the final.
If I could change one thing, it would be the super effectiveness of pistols.
If you could change only one thing in CS:GO what would be it?
If I could change one thing, it would be the super effectiveness of pistols, reducing both close range fire power and mobility. Right now, I find the first 8 rounds of a half are a boring throw around of mediocre weapons and raw firepower clashes, as opposed to a tactical execution.
Any last words or shout outs you want to give?
Just a huge amount of gratitude to FACEIT for the opportunity for OCE to attend the finals, to Vlad for keeping on top of the OCE scene unbiased and of course shout out to @TeamImmunity for supporting my team and to the other Aussie teams who are helping us prepare.
